A majority of existing landfills have been erected without a liner that would assure against penetration of leachate into surrounding areas and contamination of existing water supplies and environs. In order to reduce if not eliminate this dilemma it would be desirable to develop a technique for lining the base of existing unlined landfills whether capped or working.
Of equal concern are the consequences of the state of the art technology of landfills construction. Typically daily garbage is spread over a landfill and then covered with daily cover of fresh dirt. This build up of layers is continued until the maximum permissible height of waste is reached. Then the landfill is capped with a relatively thick layer of clay which serves to seal the contents of the landfill. It has been discovered that this landfill construction technique hinders and obstructs the decomposition of biodegradable materials of the landfill because of the absence of air and water which are necessary ingredients for composting. Newspapers, several years old and grass clippings at various locations in the landfill remain fresh and intact as originally placed with no evidence of decomposition or composting present. The referenced patent application disclose successful techniques for enhancing and accelerating the composting of biodegradable materials of existing landfills.